Culture Shock
by Blonde Panther
Summary: Post-FE7. After coming to Pherae with Eliwood, Ninian discovers the nature of Elibe's religion and gives the red-headed lord her side of the story. UPDATE 18-02-2013: Re-written to fix characterization errors.


**Disclaimer:** Fire Emblem's a little expensive a license for me. Everything here is copyrighted by Intelligent Systems.

**Characters: **Eliwood, Ninian, Elimine (to a lesser extent).

**Pairings:** Eliwood/Ninian.

**Warnings:** Spoilers for 28E and beyond. If you don't know about Ninian's secret and don't want it spoiled, don't read until you've played through Hector mode with all Kishuna chapters.

_**Author's Notes: **__The old version of this had some severe problems in the characterisation of both Ninian and Eliwood, so I've re-written it to fix that. Since I can't write the exact same story twice, it came out shorter and pretty different, but the core idea should have remained the same._

* * *

><p>The chapel near Pherae's castle had drawn Ninian's attention since she had first come to the castle with her now-fiancé, but she had never had the courage or the time to visit it. She didn't even accompany him and his mother to the weekly sermons, because she didn't feel comfortable intruding on humans' religious rituals.<p>

Months after returning from Valor, Ninian paid her first visit to the place. The doors were wide open and upon entering the chapel, the first thing she noticed was that it was in crisp condition- a stark contrast to the admittedly poorly maintained temples that she had grown used to on the other side of Dragon's Gate.

The chapel was empty, so Ninian's attention was drawn to the scenes on the frescoes and the stained glass windows. Most of them depicted scenes from what mankind knew as the Scouring, better known to her as the Great Betrayal for obvious reasons. Some, however, merely showed the image of the woman she supposed was worshipped as a saint by humans. She didn't look remotely like Naga, so she ignored those images and merely ran her hand over the scenes of the Great Betrayal.

For a few minutes she merely stood there, praying for the dragons that had been lost so many ages ago. Finishing her prayer, she still didn't move from the spot where she stood, she just stared at the wall hard, as if she could break it by staring at it for long enough. She didn't understand. She couldn't wrap her mind around it.

Up until a few months ago, Ninian had been part of a human camp. She and Nils had been the only dragons amongst it, and in her desperate attempts to keep that hidden, she never corrected the dreadfully mistaken opinions their companions had had about the Great Betrayal. They were all good people, she knew that much, but they spoke of the war as something they were grateful had happened. Yes, they acknowledged that there had been human casualties, but no one ever spoke of the fallen dragons.

They didn't seem to realize what their Scouring had truly been: a horrendous war in which mankind manually drove dragonkin to near extinction. A war which mankind itself had started in the first place! Did they hate her mother's kind so much? She shook her head, before putting her forehead to the cool wall. Maybe she just had to accept that ever since the Great Betrayal, and maybe even before it, humans and dragons had known fundamental differences that could not be reconciled.

As she sadly looked to the front of the chapel, something caught her eye. She straightened herself, walking over to the fresco she had spotted from the corner of her eye and put her hand to the ice dragon depicted in it. It had been so, so long ago since she had seen her, and yet she recognized the wyrm. The resemblance was striking. But the painter could not have been there to see her. It had to be a coincidence.

And yet, she recognized her mother.

Just as Ninian zoned in on the woman depicted to be fighting her, she heard footsteps behind her. Immediately feeling like an intruder, she spun around so quickly she had to take a few seconds to fix the hair that had flown into her face. Fortunately, she soon recognised Lord Eliwood, who she knew wouldn't judge her for being here. Sighing in relief, she looked back at the woman one more time before deciding she would just ask him.

Lord Eliwood stopped in the middle of the aisle, looking up at the stained glass window behind and above the altar with his hands in his pockets. He seemed to be pondering something, but was quick to interrupt this pondering when he heard Ninian's approach. "Oh, Ninian," he said, turning towards her. "So this is where you went."

Of course, she hadn't told him where she'd gone off to. "I apologize… I didn't mean to worry you." She saw him reaching out for her, and took his hand, allowing him to pull her closer. "I just wanted to…"

"Don't worry about it," he interrupted her. "More importantly, are you starting to feel at home?" This was the third time in the past two weeks that he had asked her this question. She knew Lord Eliwood to be very concerned with her well-being and happiness, but sometimes he became a bit overbearing. She smiled at this.

"I'll be fine, my lord…"

"Eliwood. Please." Of course. He'd asked her many times now to call him by his given name only, feeling uncomfortable with her using his title. Ninian couldn't say she understood fully, but she'd resolved to please him, so she had to at least try to remember. "So… is that a no? Is there anything I can do to make you more comfortable?"

"N-no, it's fine…" The words, formed by force of habit, had already left her mouth before she realized this was the opportunity to ask him about his religion. "Actually… I'd like to ask you something, my l- Eliwood." She felt so insolent addressing him like that. "The woman depicted in most of the images here…" she gestured to the images around them, "Do you know who she is?"

He looked at the fresco with the ice dragon that had drawn Ninian's attention, too, and she saw understanding on his face. "You mean Saint Elimine? Yes, I do… kind of, at least. She was one of the eight heroes of the Scouring. I don't know too much, Roland and Barigan were always much more interesting to me, but she founded Elibe's main religion after the war. She's worshiped pretty much all over the continent."

"Worshiped?" Ninian repeated, in shock, "But she was a murderer…"

"I don't know about that," he said, much to Ninian's shock. "It was war, after all… at most, she's a war criminal." He sighed and shook his head. "Even when you look at it that way, though, our church seems morbid."

"She killed her," Ninian muttered, loudly enough for the redhead to hear she was saying something, but not loudly enough for him to distinguish her exact words.

"What did you…"

"My mother. They told me she was killed around the time my father fled with Nils and myself. It was her." She knew the woman had seemed vaguely familiar, but it had been almost a thousand years ago, so Ninian's memory was foggy. It had taken her until now to be certain that Elimine had killed her mother.

Lord Eliwood seemed shocked, putting a hand to her face. It seemed to be more of a gesture to calm himself than her. "Ninian? Are you- Of course, you were born on Elibe… you were around at the time of the Scouring. Listen, Ninian… I understand how you feel, but please try to see the side of us humans."

"I know," she said. "To your kind, the eight generals are heroes." She put her arms around herself, squeezing tightly. "Precisely because they killed all those dragons… females and young, too…" She was getting upset. As if he recognized this, Lord Eliwood reached out and put a hand on her arm, his touch warm, gentle, and soothing.

"Ninian, please don't cry." His other hand touched her face, brushing her tear away from her cheek. "I understand your feelings. I know it won't bring her back, but I'm sorry about your mother." Those words gave her some comfort. A cold comfort, yes, but comfort all the same. She doubted Lord Eliwood truly knew how she felt, like he claimed, but at least he cared enough to try.

He put his hands on her shoulders, and Ninian leaned into his touch, shutting her eyes as she listened to him. "I'm not terribly religious myself, so it's fine if you want nothing to do with it. Our children… if we have them, won't have to worship her, either."

"That's good to hear…" she muttered. If she had a say in it, no child of hers would worship murderers. However, by bringing it up, Lord Eliwood had made her worry. Would she ever be able to give him children? They weren't of the same species…

"Ninian." She looked up at the resolution in his voice. She hadn't heard it since the conflict with Nergal had ended. "Us humans took this continent as if it was our good right to, without even once considering what we drove away." She remembered those words. He had spoken them at Dragon's Gate, shortly before she had decided she would sacrifice her lifespan to be with him. "But that doesn't mean we can't change. We won't live as long as you have, but in the time we have, our attitudes can change greatly. I promised I would work towards making Elibe a place where dragons and humans can live harmoniously, like the village Lord Athos described."

He turned her around so he could look into her eyes. "I intend to keep that promise. Our children… they will know both sides of the Scouring. And I will spread your side of the story as best I can…"

She reached up to put a finger over his lips, to silence him. "You need to concentrate on governing Pherae," she said, smiling. "The dragons in that village are safe and I am the only one outside it. It can wait until after things settle down for you…" She wanted to sigh in relief. As far as humans went, House Pherae wasn't so bad. Just as his father had been, Lord Eliwood was kind and accepting of her, despite knowing what she was. Both had gone to great lengths and Lord Eliwood was willing to go to greater ones…

He didn't have to return Elibe to how it was before the Great Betrayal. To Ninian, it was enough that he was willing to do it. He smiled, took her hand, moved it out of the way and kissed her. "Speaking of things settling down," he said upon breaking the kiss, "I believe our tailor was combing the castle in search of you. Something about your dress." He laughed when Ninian heaved a deep sigh and rested her forehead on his chest. "I'm terribly sorry, Ninian, but please indulge him. It's one of those things that form the downside to wedding a marquess of Lycia. I'll make up for it sometime, I promise."

"I don't doubt you will," she said, standing straight and letting go of him. "I'd… best go now, then." He nodded, but didn't follow her. At the doors of the chapel, Ninian turned around to see that he had turned his attention back to the stained glass window of Elimine above the altar. She didn't know what he was thinking about, but she knew for sure it wasn't anything that would harm her or her children in any way.


End file.
